The Columbus Dispatch

2/2/2008

By Bill Bush

The sluggish building industry and falling materials prices have helped Columbus City Schools stay on budget with their half-billion-dollar project to replace or renovate 35 schools, officials said.

“Just about everything has come down in price,” said Paul Goggin, co-chairman of the district bond-accountability panel overseeing construction.

Several years ago, the opposite was true. Rising materials prices and a tight labor market drove costs up dramatically, forcing the district to scale back projects to use cheaper materials and simpler designs.

In June 2006, the Ohio School Facilities Commission, which is paying for 30 percent of the Columbus project, agreed to kick in an additional $20 million to help cover rapidly increasing construction costs. Today, with 17 schools completed, 15 under construction and three yet to begin, “we’re comfortable in saying that it will be done within the budget,” Goggin said.

The work might even end with a surplus, he said.

In the past, one or two contractors would bid on a job; now, it’s not uncommon to have six, seven or eight, he said.

The most recent bids, on the $15 million renovation of the 99,000-square-foot Crestview Middle School in Clintonville, came in about $1.5 million under budget, allowing the district to add to the project and replace all the building’s windows, said Carole Olshavsky, who directs the district’s capital-improvements programs.

“Obviously, everyone is having to chase a little more work,” said Cathy Blackford, executive director of the Builders Exchange of Central Ohio, a trade organization that represents 1,100 builders and suppliers.

“Some of our members are having record years; others of our members are really looking for work.”

A couple of years ago, for example, J. Bruce Mounts’ lumber and carpentry companies were putting up 75 to 80 houses a year. In 2007, his Baker Lumber and Complete Carpentry did 12 houses.

The slowdown has forced Mounts to take more commercial and subcontracting jobs. At the same time, the price of lumber has fallen about 10 percent in the past year.

“The housing industry, which up until the last few years was my major business, has tanked,” Mounts said. “The home industry (slowdown) is what’s affecting everything. Where that goes, everything else goes.”

With all but three schools from the district’s phases 1 and 2 of the project scheduled to be up and running by 2009, the school board still hasn’t decided how to proceed with the rest.

Under the state’s co-funding program, the district agreed to renovate or replace every school.

The first phases were locally funded through a $392 million bond issue that district voters approved in 2002.

“Sooner or later, we will come to ask the public to continue supporting the program,” said Columbus School Board President Terry Boyd.

bbush@dispatch.com